Finding Common Ground
by Settiai
Summary: They might not ever be friends, but sometimes finding a little common ground makes all the difference.


It had been an almost peaceful day for once. No major emergencies, no serious injuries, nothing more for Anders to heal than a few broken bones and minor cuts. Even Justice seemed a bit subdued, to the point where Anders was considering blowing out the lantern a little earlier than usual in the hope of getting some sleep for once.

So the last thing Anders had been expecting was for Hawke and Fenris to burst into his clinic, an unconscious Sebastian supported between the two of them.

Then he noticed the blood pooling on the floor at their feet.

Anders didn't even take the time to swear as he flung himself toward his supply of lyrium. "Put him on the table," he called out, not wasting time by looking to make sure Hawke and Fenris did what he said. He trusted Hawke, and—while Fenris might hate him—he doubted the elf would risk Sebastian's life simply to spite him.

"What happened?" he demanded as he spun back around, several bottles of lyrium clutched in his hands, and all but sprinted across the room.

The two of them had just finished lowering Sebastian down onto the table, and Anders all but shoved them out of the way in his hurry to remove Sebastian's armor in order to see the damage. He did swear once he got it off. Whatever had injured the man had caught his armor at just the right angle, slipping through the defense that his plate usually gave him and leaving a jagged hole in his abdomen that didn't look good in the least bit.

He spared just a moment to look up at Hawke, who was staring down at Sebastian with a horrified look on his face. One of Fenris's hands was resting on Hawke's upper arm, the blank expression on his face a sure sign that he was just as upset as Hawke. The red scarf that he'd been wearing around his wrist for months looked a bit darker than usual, and Anders didn't think that he was imagining the occasional drop of red dripping from it.

"One of you tell me _what happened_ ," Anders said forcefully. "I need to know if I'm going to try to fix this."

That managed to get their attention, at least. Hawke's head jerked upward so that he met Anders's gaze. "Tal-Vashoth," he said grimly. "One of them got past our guard, caught him by surprise. I did what I could, but both of us know that my magic's better at blowing things up than putting them back together."

Anders nodded, prodding at Sebastian's injury. The other man didn't even shift at his touch, which Anders knew without a doubt wasn't a good sign. "Sword," he said, not bothering to make it a question. The injury itself told him that much. "One handed or two?"

"Two," Fenris said, his voice devoid of the disdain that he typically put on when talking with Anders. The two of them could go back to hating each other when the situation wasn't quite as serious. "Smaller than mine but not by much."

"Any sign of poison?" Anders asked, pressing his hands against Sebastian's abdomen and sending out a pulse of healing energy. He didn't feel any corruption on the surface, but he'd learned from past experience that it was better to be safe than sorry.

There was a brief pause. "Not that we noticed," Hawke said slowly. "The three of us didn't get a scratch, though. Sebastian was the only one hurt."

Anders didn't move his hands from Sebastian, but he did glance at Hawke. "The three of you?"

"Varric," Hawke said quickly. "Since he wasn't much help in getting him here, he went to get a message to the Chantry before they sent out a search party."

Anders nodded but didn't say anything else as he threw himself into healing. His first few tentative pushes of energy hadn't felt any poison, so he could focus entirely on closing the wound without having to worry about removing toxins first.

The world went hazy for a little while as he worked, focused entirely on the wound he was trying to heal and mostly unaware of the passing of time. It wasn't until he felt himself start to sway on his feet, a firm hand pressing down on his arm and holding him in place, that he came back to himself.

Anders let his magic fade away, his gaze moving over Sebastian's bare chest. His breathing was a little shallower than Anders would like, but his color was better. There was a pale scar where his wound had been, the only visible sign of it that was left save for the drying blood.

"I've healed the worst of it," Anders said tiredly, not surprised to hear his words slurring somewhat. "He should be fine."

Hawke's voice came from nearby but not beside him, as Anders had been expecting. "Thank the Maker for that."

Anders jerked his head in the direction of Hawke's voice. The other man was leaning back against a wall, a hand pressed against his shoulder. The moment he saw Anders staring at him, he quickly dropped his hand.

After blinking a few times, Anders glancing at his arm where he'd felt the hand helping to keep him on his feet. It was several shades darker than Hawke's, thin lines of lyrium etched in it. He raised an eyebrow as he moved his gaze up to meet Fenris's, the corner of his mouth twitching a little.

Fenris jerked his hand away as if it was on fire, pointedly looking away from him. "It seemed doubtful that you would do Sebastian much help if you collapsed."

As much as a part of him wanted to push his luck, Anders was too tired to do anything more than nod. "I appreciate it," he said begrudgingly.

The world was spinning rather unpleasantly around him, but Anders ignored it for the most part. He'd had worse, after all.

"He probably won't wake up until at least tomorrow," Anders said, reaching down to rest a hand on Sebastian's forehead. His skin felt cool to the touch, with no sign of a fever. "It would probably be best if he stayed here for the night."

"Should we move him to a cot?" Hawke asked.

Anders nodded, regretting it almost immediately as it made his vision swim even more. "If you can do it without jostling him too much, that would probably be best," he agreed. He closed his eyes for just a moment, trying to keep his breathing even.

"I can move him, Hawke," Fenris said. "Go ahead."

Anders frowned at that. Just as he was about to open his eyes to find out what in the Void the elf was talking about, he felt someone throw an arm over his shoulder. "Come on," Hawke's voice said in his ear. "Sebastian's not the only one who needs to get to a cot."

"I'm fine," Anders protested, opening his eyes again. He quickly closed them again as the sickening blur made him feel sick to his stomach.

"Sure you are," Hawke said gently. "Come on, let's get you to bed."

It said a lot about just how exhausted Anders was that he couldn't even drum up the energy to make a smartass comment despite the opening that Hawke had just given him.

* * *

Anders woke up to the smell of food.

He didn't move for a moment, not quite certain if he was actually awake or still dreaming. Most of his dreams lately had been of the horrifying nightmare type, though, so that pointed toward him _not_ imagining the smell of freshly cooked food drifting through his clinic.

His hair fell down into his eyes as he sat up, and he reached up to brush it behind his ears. He glanced around, but he didn't see his hair tie anywhere. If Hawke had taken it out the night before, only the Maker knew where it had ended up.

Anders glanced down, a flicker of amusement running through him when he saw that he wasn't wearing anything but the pair of loose trousers that he typically slept in. He didn't remember changing clothes, so he suspected that meant Hawke must have undressed him before putting him to bed. Maker, he hoped it was Hawke, considering the only other option would have been Fenris.

Grimacing at that thought, he padded barefoot out of the small sleeping area that he kept partitioned off from the main room. The only other person in the clinic was Sebastian, who appeared to be asleep on one of the cots. There were a few covered plates sitting on a table, though, that immediately caught Anders's attention.

Shaking his head, he walked over and uncovered one of the dishes, only to find a plateful of breakfast foods. They were still warm, although that didn't necessarily mean anything. He recognized the plate the food was sitting on as one of the ones that Sandal had enchanted for Hawke in order to keep food hot longer.

"That man is a menace," Anders muttered under his breath. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, though. He wasn't entirely certain if he believed in the Maker or not, but if he _was_ real then Anders owed him a debt for putting a friend as good as Hawke in his path.

"Who's a menace?"

Anders jerked in surprise, spinning around. Sebastian was propped up slightly on one arm, blinking dazedly. Judging by the look on his face, Anders suspected that he'd pushed himself up only to be hit by a dizzy spell, and of course the man was too damn stubborn to drop back down on the cot.

"You're a menace at the moment," Anders shot back, rolling his eyes. He hurried over and put a hand on Sebastian's chest, all but forcing the man back down. "Don't try to sit up until I've checked to make sure everything's healing properly."

Sebastian stared up at him, a slightly confused look on his face.

Anders sighed. "What do you remember?" he asked, trying to push his irritation to the side. Sebastian and he were far from being friends, but the man _was_ his patient. Besides, Hawke did consider him to be a friend, and Anders had learned a long time ago that he was willing to do a lot of things for Hawke. Even if it meant playing nice around a Chantry brother.

"Hawke asked me to visit the Wounded Coast with him," Sebastian said slowly, his gaze focused on Anders's face as if he was expecting some type of trick. "Fenris and Varric were there as well."

Anders nodded. "That's good," he said. "What else?"

Sebastian frowned. "We were surprised by some spiders," he said slowly. "Hawke's arm was injured, and we used up most of our healing potions fixing it."

Anders's hands clenched into fists at his sides.

Sebastian continued slowly, apparently unaware of Anders's reaction. "Then there was—" He trailed off for a moment, his gaze going distant. "Tal-Vashoth. We were attacked by Tal-Vashoth. That's the last thing I remember."

Anders stared at him, his clenched fists tightening a bit as he remembered the night before when he'd noticed Hawke rubbing at his shoulder. He hadn't thought anything of it at the time.

Sebastian shifted uncomfortably. "What?" he asked. Then his eyes widened. "The others. Was one of them injured as well?"

"Not yet," Anders muttered darkly.

Sebastian's brow furrowed with confusion. "Anders?" he asked. "I'm sorry, but I don't understand. What am I missing?"

Anders sighed, reluctantly letting his hands relax so that he could reach over and press a hand against Sebastian's forehead.

"Hawke forgot to mention that he'd been injured," he said, frowning a little at the slight heat that he felt. He let out soft pulse of healing energy. "I'll be having a talk with him about that as soon as I see him again."

Sebastian opened his mouth as if he was about to say something. He seemed to think better of it, though, and closed it again without saying a word.

"You have a slight fever," Anders said after a few more seconds had passed, pulling his hand away. "Magic can only do so much for severe injuries. Sometimes the body simply has to finish healing on its own. It's probably nothing serious."

"I should return to the Chantry in that case," Sebastian said, putting his hands into position as if he was about to push himself back up.

Anders glared at him, and Sebastian immediately froze.

"Or," Anders said pointedly, "you could let the healer finish speaking."

Sebastian had the good grace to look at least a little sheepish as he nodded.

"As I was saying," Anders continued, turning away from Sebastian and making his way over to a nearby shelf, "it's _probably_ nothing serious, but I'd like to keep an eye on you today to make certain."

When Anders turned back around, a small bag of herbs in his hand, Sebastian was shifting uncomfortably. "I'm certain that you have better things to do than—"

Anders gave him a pointed look. "Sebastian, do you really think I _want_ to spend the entire day with you?" he asked dryly. "Would I really make the suggestion if I didn't think it was warranted?"

Sebastian stared at him for a moment, and Anders met his gaze straight on.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Sebastian sighed. "I see your point," he said begrudgingly. He shifted uncomfortably in his bed. "Is that Orana's cooking I smell?"

Anders's mouth twitched, ever so slightly.

* * *

To make up for the day before, the clinic was overrun within minutes of Anders lighting the lantern.

Anders couldn't help but be thankful that Hawke had left him breakfast that morning. He hadn't had time to stop and eat once he'd opened the doors to the clinic, and he didn't want to think about just how drained he would have been without that meal to start the day with.

As he finished healing his fourth screaming child of the day, giving the boy one more chastisement not to play with his mother's daggers no matter how shiny they were, he spared a moment to glance over at Sebastian. He'd finally allowed the man to move from his cot, mainly because he'd needed the room, but he'd given him strict orders to find somewhere to sit and not to move any more than he had to.

Sebastian was sitting on a crate, his back leaning against the wall. A crowd of small children were sitting on the floor around him, listening eagerly as he told them some legend about the Second Blight that was apparently well-known in Starkhaven. He kept trying to talk with his hands, gesturing fairly wildly with them until he remembered that he was under orders to avoid doing just that. Then he'd stop for a few minutes, going back to a less animated form of storytelling, before he'd lose himself and start gesturing again.

Anders suspected that he should go over and tell Sebastian to stop. He still had a light fever, the last Anders had checked, but everything else seemed to be healing well enough. Moving around probably wouldn't hurt him at this point, and Anders honestly didn't have the energy to try and tell him to stop playing storyteller.

Especially since he _was_ keeping the children fairly quiet and out from underfoot.

"Healer!"

Besides, he had more important things to worry about at the moment.

Anders reached up and rubbed his aching head, giving himself just a moment to think longingly of collapsing onto his cot. A rumble of annoyance from Justice at the back of his mind was all it took to force his mind back to the present, and he sighed.

"Coming!" he said, spinning around in the direction of whoever it was that had been calling for him.

* * *

The only thing Anders knew about the young man who had shown up at his door and promptly collapsed was that he had an Antivan accent and was presumably Andrastian, judging by the pendant he wore around his neck. Well, and that he'd had a festering wound that Anders doubted he'd have been able to heal even if he'd been standing beside the man when he'd been injured.

He'd known the moment that the man had collapsed in his arms that he wouldn't be able to save him. That didn't make it any easier.

Especially since the man's injury had been uncomfortably similar to Sebastian's from the day before.

Anders's hand lingered on the pendant around the man's neck for a moment. He vaguely remembered his mother wearing a similar one, when he had been a small child, her arms wrapped around him as she quietly repeated the Chant.

"Come to me, child, and I shall embrace you," Anders whispered softly, reaching out to close his patient's eyes. "In my arms lies Eternity."

Anders stood there a moment, staring down at the man's unmoving chest, before walked over to the cabinet to pick up a sheet. He'd blown out the lantern moments before the man had shown up at the door, so the clinic was empty save for him and Sebastian. He pointedly didn't look around as he covered the man's body with the sheet, not wanting to draw Sebastian's attention to him.

Not that it mattered what he wanted.

"I didn't know you knew the Chant," Sebastian said quietly, his voice coming from surprisingly close by.

Anders closed his eyes tiredly, not protesting when Sebastian put a hand on his arm and helped him toward the nearest empty cot. "I don't remember saying you could get up," he said without any real heat in his voice.

Sebastian chuckled, his hand still resting on Anders's arm. "Don't think I didn't notice you trying to change the subject."

Anders sat there for a moment, breathing in and out. Memories threatened to rush up and overwhelm him, but he forcefully shoved them back to whatever corner of his mind they'd come from. "I haven't always been an apostate, you know," he said, not even trying to keep the bitterness out of his voice. "Teaching us the Chant as children is how the Circle makes certain we know that we're monsters."

Even with his eyes closed, Anders could tell that Sebastian had stiffened beside him.

"The Chant doesn't claim that mages are monsters," Sebastian said slowly.

Anders snorted. "Twisted and corrupted by their crime and their magic into monsters," he said matter-of-factly. "Foul and corrupt are they."

"Two lines from two separate verses, both of which you're taking out of context," Sebastian said immediately.

Anders opened his eyes, meeting Sebastian's gaze. "Maybe," he said quietly. He was too tired to argue, so he didn't even try. "The templars always liked to put them back-to-back."

Sebastian was the first to look away. "Foul and corrupt are they who have taken His gift and turned it against His children," he said softly.

"I'm well aware of the verse," Anders said, reaching up to rub his eyes. They were starting to burn a little from exhaustion.

"Then you know that it's not referring to you in the least."

Anders blinked at that. Then, despite his best intentions, he glanced back at Sebastian. "I'm fairly certain it is," he said. "Mage, remember?"

Sebastian shook his head. "A mage who uses His gift to help His children." The look on his face was inscrutable as he studied Anders's face. "Magic exists to serve man. From what I've seen, you're using your magic exactly as the Maker intended, apostate or not."

Despite his best intentions, Anders snorted. "Tell that to the Knight-Commander," he muttered darkly.

Sebastian shook his head. "Come with me," he said, all but lifting Anders back to his feet. Judging by the groan he immediately attempted to stifle, he realized for himself just how ill-thought-out that action was as soon as he did. "You'll be more comfortable in your own bed."

Even though his mana was down to fumes, Anders managed to shoot a quick burst of healing energy at Sebastian. The man's stiff posture immediately evened out.

"You didn't have to do that," Sebastian said softly, as the two of them made their way across the room.

Anders shrugged tiredly. "I know," he replied. Then, despite his exhaustion, he managed to give Sebastian a light smirk. "You know, this is the second night in a row that a handsome man has taken me to bed."

Sebastian stumbled slightly, his face immediately turning a rather amusing shade of red.

Anders was too tired to do anything else, but the corner of his mouth twitched with amusement. Just a little.


End file.
